When did the ill-feeling between Ali and Norton start?

I remember Foreman saying he received a call from Ali about Norton, it apparently went roughly like " Hey George, fight Foreman for me would ya, he's scared of you but he gives me problems" lol..I believe it 100%...Norton was Ali's equal when they fought imo

 

They are in a fight, it will have been over nothing. They ended up good friends in their later years so no grudges were held. One thing that is apparent in that fight is just how easy Ali was to hit.

 

He mentions it in his book. Unfortunately, George had lost to Jimmy Young, had his religious conversion and was pursuing his ministry, when he got the call from Ali. Ali even offered George use of his Deer Lake Training Camp, and a title shot after Foreman beat Norton again.

 

Ahh, so it is fact then, funny stuff lol

 

I believe that any ill feeling (if it was indeed genuine) apparently originally came from Ali's side of the fence. As I understand it, after Ali's win over Bob Foster in Stateline, Nevada, Ali was at the bar of the venue after the fight with a bevy of beauties. Norton walked up to the bar (but not next to Ali), Ali & Norton acknowledged each other, at which point the ladies left Ali's side to go and be with Norton.

Ali, apparently outraged at being upstaged by Norton & with a considerably bruised ego, threatened Norton that he would whup Ken & the match was made as a result of this incident. The rest, as they say, is history.

Don't shoot the messenger...

 

imo competitiveness ..I know in retirement Norton had a special soft spot for Ali, and spoke of him like you would your kid brother, annoys the f out of you but you love him.. I think he said it actually welling up after his bad car accident if I remember right..Norton was a cool dude !

 

Ken Norton made the movie Mandingo. In it, he played a slave. In one scene, he has sex with the plantation owner's wife and gets her pregnant. Norton is nude in the movie and in the sex scene.

Ali seemed to take great offense to this in the build-up to their third fight. He said appearing in an "x-rated movie" and having sex with a white woman was no way for the heavyweight champion to act, so Norton didn't deserve to be champ. Elijah Muhammad was dead and the Nation of Islam had started down a less militant course, but this seemed to stir up the old sixties black/white teachings Ali had spoke about forever.

Ali ripped Norton quite a bit during the prefight for being in that movie.

 

Here's one example.

This content is protected

 

I heard that on too. Ken was quite the ladies man back in the day. He had that great build that not a lot of other athletes of the time had. Nowadays every player football, basketball player looks like that but back then he was kind of unique. Even Hollywood came calling and he made Mandingo and Drum (both of which I saw recently, no Oscars for Ken) You had to be sharp to steal the ladies from Ali

 

What Norton shouted at Ali after the fight was "I beat you! I beat you!" I read this in an interview with Norton.

And beat him, he did.